It can be hard to read the future of phone books

Despite the darkness when I returned home the other night, I could still see it wrapped in clear plastic on the welcome mat before my front door.

Another telephone directory.

This was the latest offered up for my phone directory library. Well, not actually a library, but my hall closet in which they're stacked. These directories should not be confused with others left sitting in the corner of my garage or tossed in my recycling bin.

Perhaps even the savant Raymond Babbitt character portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the 1988 film "Rain Man," who committed a phone book to memory, would be daunted by my growing collection.

I have discovered at my door directories for businesses, for residences, for businesses to businesses, for regions, for towns, for neighborhoods, for emergency and city services, and for an assortment of participating businesses.

These phone books arrive at a time when my use for them is significantly diminished. I turn to the Internet for directory information and consult phone books mostly when I'm out of town and separated from a computer. I'm not surprised that telecom manufacturers now offer phones that have phone book features.

There remains profit in traditional phone directories, which is why companies still provide them and sell ads for them. But the wealth generated isn't overwhelming as it once was when they dominated local business advertising. That is why some phone companies exited the directory business.

Adapting to changing times, directory companies now offer their listings on the Web as well. They sell space for online video commercials and actively network with other sites to increase viewers and advertising.

With the advertising world of clicks and hits not yet a proven commodity for stable directory profits, however, companies will continue to send out trucks and crews to toss phone books onto welcome mats until the long-term profit picture becomes clearer.

Though I personally have seen no sign of phone books fading away, if they do disappear one day I'll probably grouse about missing them. But to reminisce I'll always have my phone directory library in the hall closet.

Cary, N.C.-based R.H. Donnelley, making the transition to new media, has seen its stock decline this year. It does, however, have multiyear rights to publish directories of local telecoms in key markets, a sophisticated Web presence and an established sales force.